Defects in the form of structural flaws, process residues, and external contamination occur during the production of semiconductor wafers. Defects are typically detected by a class of instruments called defect scanners. Such instruments automatically scan wafer surfaces and detect optical anomalies using a variety of techniques. The location of these anomalies with respect to the pattern of semiconductor devices on the wafer surface is recorded. This information, or xe2x80x9cdefect map,xe2x80x9d is stored in a computer file and sent to a defect review station.
Using the defect map to locate each defect, a human operator observes each defect under a microscope and characterizes each defect according to type (e.g., particle, pit, scratch, or contaminant). Information gained from this process is used to correct the source of defects, and thereby improve the efficiency and yield of the semiconductor production process. Unfortunately, people are relatively slow and are quickly fatigued by the highly-repetitive task of observing and characterizing defects.
Methods of automatically characterizing defects, collectively known as Automatic Defect Characterization, or xe2x80x9cADC,xe2x80x9d have been developed to overcome the disadvantages of manual defect characterization. Conventional white-light-microscope-based review stations are automated to load a wafer that has been mapped for defect location by a defect scanner. Once the mapped wafer is loaded, the review station:
1. positions the wafer to image the site of a defect, as indicated by the defect map;
2. focuses on the site of the defect;
3. captures a digital image of the site using a digital TV camera;
4. processes and analyzes the captured image of the site to locate the defect; and
5. further analyzes the data to characterize the defect.
The above process is repeated for each defect (or a predetermined subset of defects) on the wafer. The wafer is then unloaded and the process is repeated for another wafer. By eliminating a fatiguing and highly repetitive task, such automated review stations reduce labor costs and provide improved consistency and accuracy over human operators.
Conventional ADC systems capture a conventional white-light microscope image as an array A representing a two-dimensional image. The image is an x-y array of n by m pixels, where typical values might be n=640, m=480, or n=512, m=512. This array may be represented as:
A(x, y, Ir, Ig, Ib), 
where x and y are pixel coordinates, and Ir, Ig, and Ib represent the intensities of the red, green, and blue image components, respectively. Of course, grey scale images may also be used, as may other color schemes, such as those of the YUV and YIQ commercial standard formats. In the case of a gray scale image, a single intensity parameter Ig is used.
In addition to imaging the defect site, at least one reference image Aref is also stored. The reference image may be a previously stored data-base image of a known-good area of the same or a similar die on the same or on a similar wafer, or it may be a specific image taken from, e.g., an adjacent die. The reference image is compared with the image containing the defect. Any differences measured between the two images will indicate the location and extent of the defect.
Multiple reference images are usually required because slight differences in focus position between the reference and test images may cause false discrepancies to appear. In some cases, a separate reference image is not taken, and instead the reference image is a portion of the same image containing the defect, but from a region of the image where no defect occurs. In general, this latter method is faster but less reliable than methods that use a separate reference image, and works only for images containing repetitive structures or patterns.
Several conventional techniques are available to process images for automatic defect characterization. One such technique is described by Youling Lin, M. S., in Techniques for Syntactic Analysis of Images with Application for Automatic Visual Inspection, a dissertation in business administration submitted in December of 1990 to the graduate faculty of Texas Tech University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of doctor of philosophy, which is incorporated herein by this reference.
Lin describes ADC techniques for processing a two-dimensional microscope image. According to Lin, low-level image processing enhances surface features and reduces noise. This process is performed on intensity (gray scale) variations of the image. Lin describes an extreme-median digital filter to accomplish this task.
Next, Lin describes techniques for identifying feature boundaries and converting the boundaries into a list of symbolic geometric xe2x80x9cprimitives.xe2x80x9d Suppose, for example, that a surface feature has the shape of a half-circle. Such a feature will have a boundary shaped approximately like the letter xe2x80x9cD.xe2x80x9d This boundary could be converted into two geometric primitives; a line segment (specified by length and direction) representing the vertical portion of the xe2x80x9cD,xe2x80x9d and an arc (specified by position and radius) representing the curved portion of the letter xe2x80x9cD.xe2x80x9d More complex shapes may be similarly represented using a large number of connected line segments, angles, and arcs.
Symbolic geometric primitive extraction is performed, for example, by statistical comparison of the edge data with a representation of geometric primitives, such as line segments, arcs, or angles. The surface-feature boundary data is replaced with a set of primitives that best describes the boundary.
The preceding steps are performed both for at least one reference image and for a test image. Then, using techniques derived from compiler theory, the set of reference primitives is compared, primitive by primitive, with the set of test primitives. When a discrepancy is encountered between the sets of reference and test primitives, a rule-based expert system notes the discrepancy and continues the comparison. The discrepancies (i.e., the differences between the sets of reference and test primitives) define the location of a defect.
Alternatively, the defect area may be located by overlaying the test and reference images, aligning them by correlation techniques, and subtracting the images one from the other. Defects will show up as areas where the test and reference images have large difference values.
Having identified the location of a defect, the boundaries of the defect are identified and represented by a set of primitives in the manner described above for the test and reference images. In one embodiment, where more than one defect is located in a single image, only the defect with the largest area is selected for further processing.
Next, the set of primitives representing the image portion containing the defect is used to develop a set of defect parameters, each defect parameter representing a single feature of the defect. For example, one defect parameter may represent the area of the defect and another the shape of the defect. Moreover, characteristics of the area defined by the defect boundaries may be used-to derive additional defect parameters. For example, the defect area may be analyzed for average intensity, variations in intensity from one pixel to the next or within a small region (xe2x80x9ctexturexe2x80x9d), color, or color coordinates. The defect parameters are conventionally expressed in a normalized form so that they run from, e.g., 0 to 1 or xe2x88x921 to 1. A defect-parameter vector is then defined by these parameters.
The defect-parameter vector is compared, using conventional fuzzy logic techniques, with typical vectors for each known type of defect. Based on this comparison, the ADC system characterizes the defect and estimates the probability that the selected characterization is accurate. For a more detailed description of one method of developing a defect-parameter vector, see xe2x80x9cTechniques for Syntactic Analysis of Images with Application for Automatic Visual Inspection,xe2x80x9d which is incorporated herein by reference.
For further discussion of conventional ADC techniques, see the IBM technical disclosure entitled xe2x80x9cAutomated Classification of Defects in Integrated Circuit Manufacturing,xe2x80x9d by Frederick Y. Wu, et al., which is incorporated herein by this reference.
Conventional ADC images have a number of shortcomings. For example, small pits versus particles cannot be distinguished, shallow structures are not discernible, and subsurface defects cannot be characterized. And, if a defect or structure on a surface is xe2x80x9ctall,xe2x80x9d focusing on one level leaves other levels out of focus. Accuracy of the automatic focus between the test and reference image then becomes critical because small variations in focus cause the boundary between two structures of different heights to change in appearance. A conventional ADC system may then interpret this variation as a potential defect when it is not. Human operators can compensate for this to some degree by, e.g., moving the focus up and down and interpreting three-dimensional aspects of the images, but this wastes valuable time. Moreover, if there are low optical contrasts between the defect and the surrounding material (e.g., the defect is of approximately the same color or reflective intensity as the surrounding surface of the semiconductor), an ADC scheme can fail to detect the true shapexe2x80x94or even the existencexe2x80x94of the defect. Therefore, what is needed is a more accurate method of automatically characterizing defects.
The present invention involves Automatic Defect Characterization (ADC) with a resulting improved accuracy and efficiency over the prior art. In one embodiment, ADC is based on three-dimensional data, including white-light confocal images and laser-based confocal images. The present invention also involves further extension of these techniques to Laser Feedback Microscopy (LFM) derived arrays, and xe2x80x9cimagexe2x80x9d arrays developed from other techniques.
In accordance with the present invention, a test surface is defined by a set of points on the test surface, the set of points being described by a Cartesian coordinate system having x, y, and z axes such that each point has a unique location described by x, y, and z coordinates.
To so define the test surface, the test surface is contained with a rectangular test volume described by the x, y, and z axes used to define the test surface. The rectangular test volume contains a superset of test points defined by incremental x, y, and z coordinates. Using confocal optics, the test volume is scanned by a focussed beam of light so that the focal point of the beam coincides, in turn, with each point within the test volume. The intensity of reflected light returned for each point in the test volume is measured to obtain a data value representing the reflected intensity for that point.
Next, the Z value that resulted in a maximum reflected intensity value is determined for each column of z values (each represented by a unique x, y coordinate in the test volume). In accordance with the principles of confocal optics, the measured intensity of reflected light is greatest when the focal point of the beam is coincident with the surface. Therefore, the Z value that resulted in a maximum reflected intensity value for a given column of z values indicates the location of the surface point along the z axis (i.e., the elevation of the point).
In addition to the Z value corresponding to the maximum reflected intensity, the ADC system also determines and stores a value representing the maximum reflected intensity of each point.
The maximum reflected intensity value and the location along the z axis of each of the points on the test surface are stored as a set of test data representing a three-dimensional image of the test surface. From this three-dimensional image, the system extracts a set of geometric constructs, or xe2x80x9ctest primitives,xe2x80x9d that approximate features of the three-dimensional image of the test surface. This set of test primitives is compared to a set of reference primitives derived from a reference image to determine whether the set of test primitives is different from the set of reference primitives.
Differences between the test and reference primitives indicate the presence of a defect. When such differences exist, the ADC system generates a set of defect parameters from the differences between the set of test primitives and the set of reference primitives. The defect parameters define a defect-parameter vector, which is matched with a knowledge base of reference defect-parameter vectors to determine the type of defect.